Sam the Cooking Guy: Just a Bunch of Recipes

by Sam Zien

‘I can't cook.’ I hear that all the time. And it's not that you can't--it's that you don't. It's that we've been wrecked by cooking shows with their millions of complicated steps and crazy-ass ingredients. Ingredients you can't find, let alone pronounce. That's not how I want to cook. I want to eat well, but I don't want it to take a year. Who's making stuff like 'Truffled Peruvian Mountain Squab with Chilled Framboise Foam' anyway? "So this book is about food that's big in taste and small in effort. Just great-tasting stuff with no fancy techniques and definitely no over-the-top ingredients, as in everything-comes-from-a-regular-supermarket--cool concept, huh? It's just a bunch of recipes you'll easily be able to make and enjoy."
-- From Sam the Cooking Guy Look inside for great recipes like • One Dank Tomato Pie • "Whatever" Spring Rolls • Five-Minute Stir-Fry Noodles • O.F.R.B.P.J.G.O. • Awww Nuts! • BBQ Chicken Pizza • Halloween Chicken Chili • Fridge Fried Rice • Sam's Sticky Sweet BBQ Ribs • Stuffed Burgers • Pesto BBQ Shrimp • Chili Salmon • Motor Home Meatballs • Spicy-ish Sausage Pasta • The Great Potato Cake • Brussels Sprouts You'll Actually Eat • (Fake) Creme Brulee • Chocolate Toffee Matzoh  • Peanut Butter Ice-Cream Cup Things

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Reference, Nonfiction

246 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2008

Reviews

[Frank Dodd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this while wandering aimlessly around Sprouts. My quick read reveals that it is a great book for a limited budget. Honestly, have you ever bought all the ingredients to make a deluxe pizza -- easily 30 bucks. All of the recipes sound great and some are old standards... LIke French Toast Mountain.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this one up at the library too and copied 10-15 of the recipes to try. His style of writing feels like he's talking right to you and the recipes are simple and, so far, very good.

[Cheryl Schibley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cookbook. It's real, down to earth and fun to read. Some very easy recipes some pretty sophisticated. I watch him on the Discovery Channel (I think) and I've gotten to really like him.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Met Sam and him sign my book in 2008. This is a great book with plenty of "easy" recipes for anyone with 2 left hands! I recommend this book to everyone!

[Dray · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting cookbook. I had read his later book on burgers and hotdogs and really liked it. This book is much more scattered with fairly quick recipes and recipe hacks. Sam has quite a bit of advice to give, some of which works and some of which does not (for me). It really is "just a bunch of recipes".

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam Zien, Sam the Cooking Guy: Just a Bunch of Recipes (Wiley, 2008)

I recently reviewed Michael Symon's Live to Cook, and while I was (of course, being a fan of Symon's restaurants) enamored with the recipes, I wasn't terribly fond of the tone of the surrounding prose. It was only a couple of days after finishing Live to Cook that I picked up Sam the Cooking Guy: Just a Bunch of Recipes. Unlike Symon, I'd never heard of Sam Zien before, other than the press release that alerted me to this book's existence. I've never seen his TV show; wasn't even aware he had one until I read the preface. So I've no idea how the guy comes across on TV. Perhaps, like Symon, he seems a lot more affable in front of a camera, but I found myself having exactly the same tone issues with Zien, though on the opposite end of things. Where Symon comes off overly didactic, Zien tries way too hard to be a hip wise-acre. Sorry, Sam, it doesn't work.

The recipes are good. But you know, it's a cookbook. I probably shouldn't give cookbooks as many props for good recipes as I do; after all, if the recipes weren't good, who would want to publish the book? Still, there's a lot of good, solid dishes to throw together, especially for beginning cooks (as opposed once again to Symon's book; there's a few recipes in there even I'm hesitant to tackle the first time). If you're still not quite sure of the difference between a whisk and a spatula, this is a good starting point. You may have to ignore Zien's tone in some of the interstatial prose, but don't pass the book up because of them. ***

[Debbie Dame · Rating 5 out of 5]

This recipe book is funny as all get out and has some DELISH food. The ingredients are simple as are the recipes. I've already made quite a few dishes and even Little has scarfed the Salt and Pepper shrimp. No simple feat since she is not so much into food. Buy this book if you don't have it! You WILL NOT be disappointed!

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

So excited to pick this up today. We enjoy his show on Discovery Health Channel.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like watching this guy on public access television (channel 4). He is also on Discovery Health channel, but I like the quirky channel 4 show.

[Fern · Rating 2 out of 5]

donutmisu is not a recipe. in fact it sounds downright revolting

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love his show on local cable but many of his recipes are online. This book didn't offer anything new or different.

[Stormy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this cookbook. The instructions are no nonsense and the recipes are good. Worth a look-see.

[Karen Salser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must have!